MONTEREY, Calif. – There’s a new car on the podium. RM Sotheby’s auctioned the 1956 Aston Martin DBR1 race car, chassis no. 1, for $ 22,550,000. That makes it the most-expensive British car ever sold at auction, according to Sotheby’s, let alone the most-expensive Aston Martin. It surpasses the previous high, set least year, by a 1955 Jaguar D-Type that went for $ 21.8 million.
Known specifically as the DBR1/1, Sotheby’s listed it as “the most correct example of what is arguably the most important Aston Martin ever produced.” A certain DB5 from Goldfinger might have a rival claim to that title, but nevertheless, the DBR1/1 was the first of only five examples that competed from 1956 to 1959 in the World Sportscar Championship endurance series. While its fellow DBR1’s claimed earlier victories, it won the 1959 Nurburgring 1000 KM driven by Sterling Moss and Jack Fairman. Carroll Shelby was also a driver on the team.
DBR1/1 is the only one of the five cars to ever be offered for public sale. There were a number of other Aston Martin race cars at auction this year, including a 1959 DB4GT Prototypde that went for $ 6,765,000.
